New Growth Arts Review receives 76 percent of proposed budget

The Co-op Finance Meeting in the Hadley Union Building Knowlton Board Room resulted in the New Growth Arts Review receiving 80 percent of their proposed budget for next year. (Ashley Meredith/ The Penn)

The Co-op Finance Meeting in the Hadley Union Building Knowlton Board Room resulted in the New Growth Arts Review receiving 80 percent of their proposed budget for next year. (Ashley Meredith/ The Penn)

Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s literary and art magazine New Growth Arts Review received 76 percent of their proposed budget at Thursday’s Co-op Finance Committee Meeting.

The original budget of $4,127 was denied March 14 on the grounds that the board had never seen the magazine and felt that an online medium would help to reduce printing costs.

After members of the magazine stated their case, the board voted unanimously to award NGAR a $3,127 budget for next year.

“We’ll certainly make do,” said Jarret Wasko (senior, studio art), NGAR’s art editor. “From here we’ll have to do some significant planning at the end of the year to ensure continuity of the publication, especially with the change in format. We’ll need to make a concrete decision about what will suffer, whether it’s the page number or switching to a publication that people have to pay for.”

Before awarding the budget, the board urged NGAR staff to consider changing the release date of the magazine.

“We would request that you print the magazine earlier in the semester,” Finance Chair Matt Jones (senior, finance and legal studies) said.

When a magazine is released right around finals week, the potential readership decreases substantially, he said.

“I do not see an issue at all with moving up the publication date if that is the main concern here,” said Kathleen Sallada (senior, English), NGAR’s editor in chief. “We do get more submissions in the spring, but if we were to publicize the change in release date, I believe that it would work.”

Money awarded to NGAR will also be put toward increased advertising, which will hopefully lead to increased campus involvement, she said.

“I was involved in IUP Day this year,” Sallada said, “and because we did not have money for advertising, I paid for the advertising for IUP Day out of my pocket. I didn’t mind, but it is not something that I want for next year’s staff.”

Ethan Wang (senior, accounting) brought up the possibility of moving to an online publication.

Although NGAR is not looking to become an all-online publication, it is looking for ways to effectively create an online presence, according to Dr. Chauna Craig, NGAR adviser and English professor.

“We have a few options when it comes to an online publication,” she said. “One of them is to be on a website affiliated with IUP. The problem with that, as The HawkEye – the student organization that does investigative reporting – has found, is that an IUP website is representative of IUP.”

NGAR tries not to censor the work that is submitted and does not want to run the risk of having to turn down content that may be slightly explicit because of the public relations angle that comes with an IUP website, Craig said.

Wang suggested that, instead of putting NGAR on a blog or IUP site, the organization print fewer copies, scan them and put them online in a full-color PDF with an available subscription.

“Another use for the subscription would be to quantify your reader base,” he said. “If you have a subscription option, even when your copies are gone, you could continue quantifying readership.”

Wang’s suggestion was recognized by Craig as one of the most useful suggestions presented when it comes to moving NGAR online.

“I’m trying as best as I know how to reach out to the IUP community,” Sallada said. “I’m more than willing to accept suggestions on how to branch out and to market the magazine to majors outside of art and English.”

NGAR’s launch party, including the magazine release, opening reception and literary performances, will be held in the Kipp Annex Gallery at 5 p.m. May 1. The gallery will be open from May 1-10.

Other organizations appealing budget cuts at Thursday’s meeting were the Habitat for Humanity, Multicultural Student Recruitment Team and the Student Philanthropy Council.

Habitat for Humanity was awarded their $395 budget request with the stipulation of changing their mission statement to remove all religious affiliation.

The $800 budget for MSRT was denied in a 2-4 vote, and the $19,570 budget for the Student Philanthropy Council was denied in a 5-0 vote.

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